The Necessity of Caffeine
by Saine199611
Summary: "You have to go without tea for the rest of the week, just to prove that you're serious about the whole health thing." There was a pause as this new deal was considered before Arthur smiled back at him. "Alright deal. I'll follow your one condition if it means that you go without coffee for the rest of the week." Alfred quickly kissed his boyfriend before grabbing the coffee pot.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: This comes from the 100 themes challenge of Are you challenging me? This will be a multi-chapter story and I hope to post a new chapter every other day. **

Day 1 The Challenge

The day had started out peacefully enough. America was making his usual pot of coffee which had caused England to wake up and start on his tea. Alfred was enjoying his first daily dose of caffeine until he noticed that Arthur was staring thoughtfully at him.  
"What's up dude? You're off in space somewhere." Arthur smiled at him.  
"Oh sorry. I was just wondering about how much coffee you drink in a day." This caused Alfred to pause and think. How much coffee did he drink in a day? After thinking about it for a few minutes he came up with a pretty good estimate.  
"I would say about three pots of coffee a day."  
"How in the hell are you not dead of a heart attack!?" Alfred grinned confidently.  
"Because the hero can't have a heart attack duh. You're so cute for thinking that Iggy." Arthur glared at him.  
"Don't call me cute idiot!" Smiling, Alfred stood up and hugged his boyfriend.  
"Alright alright sorry. But still I can't have a heart attack because I'm the hero," After freeing himself from Alfred's grip Arthur stood up, grabbed the cup of coffee and the coffee pot and dumped the contents of both down the sink, "DUDE! What're you doing!? Are you crazy!?"  
"No I'm trying to keep you from dying of a heart attack from too much caffeine." Alfred stared wordlessly.  
"B-but... my coffee." Arthur sighed in exasperation. Alfred really could be so childish sometimes. Ok he could be childish most if the time.  
"You won't die if you can't drink coffee. This is for your health."  
"My health is fine, I swear!" Alfred immediately reached for the coffee pot, "Come on dude, give it back and let me make more coffee." Arthur shook his head and moved the coffee pot out of his boyfriend's reach.  
"No." Alfred whined and put on his best puppy dog face.  
"Pleeeaaasseee..."  
"No Alfred now start acting like an adult."  
"But I don't wanna!" Arthur smirked slightly.  
"Well then I have no choice but to take the coffee away, since children aren't allowed to have it." Alfred stared at him incredulous before glaring.  
"Bastard." Arthur sighed again.  
"All I'm going to ask is that you go without coffee until the end of the week and then you can go back to having it. I just want you to see that you can live without coffee." At this point Alfred was not only glaring but plotting. If he had to go without caffeine then so did Arthur. He smiled evilly and walked over to Arthur, who immediately moved the coffee pot again.  
"Ok Artie that's fine with me. But only on one condition. You have to go without tea for the rest of the week, just to prove that you're serious about the whole health thing." There was a pause as this new deal was considered before Arthur smiled back at him.  
"Alright deal. I'll follow your one condition if it means that you go without coffee for the rest of the week." Alfred quickly kissed his boyfriend before grabbing the coffee pot and putting it on the top of the cabinets.  
"Let the challenge begin."

**A/N: Well there's the first chapter. I hope you guys enjoyed it and any reviews, even if they're criticism, are appreciated. **


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Well here's chapter 2. This day will be in two parts so I'll upload the next part tomorrow instead of the day after tomorrow for continuity. Anyway enough rambling onto the story.**  
Day 2 part 1 The First Symptoms  
When Alfred woke up the next morning the first thing he noticed was that his head hurt like hell and he ached all over.  
"Dammit," he groaned, "What's with the pain?" He rolled over onto his side to see that Arthur had already woken up and was most likely downstairs reading or something like that. Very slowly he got out of bed and went to join the Brit.  
"Good morning," was the greeting he received as he walked into the kitchen. Arthur was sitting at the table, finishing the last of his breakfast with no tea in sight. Well at least he had kept his part of the deal.  
"I guess." Alfred replied as he sat down at the table as well. Arthur looked over at him concerned.  
"Are you alright?" In response Alfred shook his head, before resting it on the table.  
"Fucking headache..." He muttered. He heard Arthur get up and approach him before gentle hands started rubbing his back.  
"Why don't you go back to bed? I'll bring you up something to eat and then you can rest." Alfred started to nod before realizing that Arthur rubbing his back felt very nice and he didn't want to get up nor did he have the energy. He then shook his head.  
"Nah it's cool. It'll pass soon, I get these headaches all the time."  
"Alright if you're sure. I'll go grab you some aspirin to help a little bit." Alfred smiled and nodded.  
"Ok. But when you come back can you continue what you're doing? It feels nice and helps stop everything from hurting."  
"Alfred," the concern was obvious in his voice, "Are you in pain everywhere?" He shrugged slightly.  
"More like an ache. But what happened to the aspirin?" Arthur chuckled quietly.  
"Sorry about that love, I got a bit distracted. I'll go get that now." The hands left his back and he could hear footsteps heading in the direction of the bathroom where they kept the medicine. He groaned softly as a new stab of pain came behind his eyes. He didn't know what was causing this but he wanted to know so he could stop it.  
Arthur's footsteps came back and Alfred looked up long enough to smile at him. "Thanks lovey." Arthur smiled back at him and handed him the pills and a glass of water that he had gotten as well.  
"Here take these and hopefully that'll help." He took the pills, downed them and then finished the glass of water. During this he managed to get his first good look at Arthur.  
"Hey Iggy how much did you sleep last night?" Arthur shrugged.  
"Well I didn't sleep well. I just couldn't stay asleep last night."  
"You should've woken me up. I don't want you to have to be up alone."  
"I didn't want to bother you." Alfred sighed and stood up, grabbing Arthur's hand.  
"Come on you, we're going back to sleep." He then proceeded to drag him back upstairs to their bedroom and crawled back under the covers. Arthur followed his example and wrapped an arm around Alfred's waist.  
"You try to sleep too. That might help with the migraine." He then closed his eyes and after a few minutes his breathing evened out, showing that he was asleep. Alfred smiled and then winced as another shooting pain coursed through him.  
"What in the hell is causing this?" He asked himself quietly before closing his own eyes and falling asleep.

**A/N: So the first symptoms have appeared. Let me know if you want me to put a list of the symptoms at the bottom of the chapters so there's a clear list of what's going. Thanks to my two reviewers and my four followers (as of last time I checked).**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Thanks for all the feedback and I will try to work on the formatting but for now I have to update from my iPad so it might get a little screwed up. Also I will be putting a list of all the symptoms for caffeine withdrawal, along with a list for each character, at the bottom.**

Day 2 part 2 The Answers

This time it was Alfred that woke up first. He glanced down at Arthur, who was sleeping peacefully, before looking up at the clock. According to the glowing numbers only about half an hour had passed since they had fallen asleep. He sighed and grabbed his phone, being careful to move as little as possible in order to not disturb Arthur. The phone served as a great distraction from the headaches and other pain, especially when his brother called him. It was a good thing he had left the phone on vibrate otherwise the ring would've been loud enough to wake up Arthur.  
"Hey bro, what's up?" He asked as quietly as he could.  
"Not much eh. But can I ask why you're whispering?" Alfred smiled down at the sleeping figure next to him.  
"Arthur's still asleep and I'm still in bed so I have to be quiet. Not to mention my head is freaking killing me, so I can't even talk loud." On the other end of the phone Matthew chuckled.  
"You're being lazy today aren't you?" Alfred scowled half-jokingly at the phone.  
"Yeah well when you're whole fucking body hurts and your head feels like it's gonna explode you're not exactly wanting to move much."  
"What's wrong Al?" His brother sounded concerned for his well-being. Alfred sighed.  
"Not sure really. All I know is I stopped drinking coffee yesterday because of a challenge with Iggy and now my body is conspiring against me." Matthew chuckled again and Alfred seriously considered smacking his brother next time he saw him.  
"You sound like you're going through withdrawal or something eh," There was a pause as Alfred thought about what his brother had just said, "Al I was joking."  
"Yeah, yeah I know but still you may be onto something. I gotta go and look this up. Thanks Mattie talk to you later." With that he hung up the phone and immediately started searching the Internet. Five minutes later Alfred was staring in shock and confusion at his phone.  
It was possible to get addicted to caffeine!? Since when had that been possible!? Not to mention that it had a list of symptoms and he had two of them. Quickly he shook Arthur's shoulder to wake him up and tell him.  
"Hm? What?" Was the sleepy response.  
"Come on dude time to wake up. I've got something I need to show you," Arthur shook his head and turned over to try and block out Alfred, "Artie~ Wake up before I go get a glass of water and dump it on you."  
"Fine," Arthur turned back over and looked at Alfred, "So what's so important?" Alfred put the phone right in front of Arthur's face.  
"Well it turns out that you can get addicted to caffeine and when you stop taking it in somehow, like being forced to not drink coffee until the end of the week, you can go through withdrawal. And take a look at the symptoms," he paused for a moment, "Yeah I have two of them. Thanks to your idea of not drinking coffee I'm going through fucking withdrawal."  
"W-what? You think you're going through withdrawal?" Alfred nodded angrily.  
"Yeah I do. All because of your stupid no coffee idea. And guess what insomnia is one of the symptoms too and since tea has caffeine in it you've given yourself withdrawal too. What a great idea this was."  
Arthur sat up and ran a hand through Alfred's hair to try and calm him down some.  
"I'm sorry love I didn't know that you could go through withdrawal. But in the end it may be better if you became a little less dependent on caffeine and coffee."  
"Better!? How is it better if I go through fucking withdrawal symptoms so that I will become less dependent of caffeine because you say I need to be!? Well my coffee consumption is perfectly fine with me so I don't understand why you're trying to mess with it!" Arthur stared in shock at Alfred.  
"Alfred calm down. I'm not trying to put you through withdrawal symptoms but the fact that you are going through them is a sign that you were too dependent on caffeine." There was silence for a minute before Alfred got up and simply walked out of the room, leaving Arthur confused as to what had just happened.

**A/N: Well things are getting bad really quick. Please continue to review and give me feedback. And as promised here's the list of symptoms:**

Symptoms:  
Chills and/or hot spells  
Decreased alertness  
Depressed mood  
Difficulty concentrating or thinking  
Digestive issues (usually constipation, but sometimes also nausea and / or vomiting)  
Fatigue, lethargy and / or sleepiness ALFIE and IGGY  
Headaches, ranging from moderate to severe, and usually starting behind the eyes before spreading ALFIE  
Irritability (moderate to extreme) and restlessness ALFIE and IGGY  
Insomnia (Although it seems counterintuitive, this can be an issue for some people!) IGGY  
Muscle stiffness and / or pain ALFIE  
Sinus issues (usually blocked sinuses or cold-like symptoms)


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: I had some extra time on my hands because my partner, who has all of our work on our history project, didn't show up at school today so I have nothing to do during class. This led to me thinking, "eh why not just put up another chapter." So here's Day 3!**

Day 3 Tension and Tempers

_Alfred_  
"Goddammit Iggy, you just had to take away my coffee. I bet you knew this would happen," Alfred muttered darkly as he paced the length of the bedroom he had taken residence in after finding out about caffeine addiction. And so far the only time he had come out was to get food when he absolutely had to and he hadn't spoken to Arthur at all. Why would he after Arthur had pretty much said that he didn't care that Alfred was going through withdrawal symptoms as long as he became "less dependent on caffeine and coffee"?

_Arthur_  
He could hear Alfred's heavy footsteps as he paced his new room and it was making him nervous. The last time he had seen Alfred this upset was during the Cold War and that had not been a pleasant time for anyone, especially Alfred. Honestly though, he didn't see the problem with what had happened. Alfred was going through withdrawal symptoms but that just meant that he had been very addicted to the coffee that he loved to drink.  
Arthur sighed and dropped his head into his hands. Maybe it would just be better to give up and give Alfred his coffee back so that he would calm down. After thinking about it for a moment he realized that wouldn't have any point. If he just gave Alfred back his coffee then they would be right back where they started, with Alfred being extremely addicted to the caffeine.  
"Maybe I should go try to talk to him. I'm it sure how much good it will do but it might help a little." Frowning slightly he stood up and went to Alfred's new room.

_Alfred_  
He scowled at he door as he heard footsteps coming towards the room. What the hell did he want now?  
"Alfred," Arthur's voice sounded hesitant and quiet, "Can we talk?" Alfred chuckled a bit.  
"About what? What do we have to talk about that could be so important that you bothered me while I'm mad at you? Why should I talk to you anyway? Can you tell me that?"  
"I know you're mad at me but-"  
"There's no fucking buts about this! I'm pissed at you and you know why!" He smirked at the closed door and the silence, "What? No response?"

_Arthur_  
He stared at the door in shock. Alfred hadn't sounded just mad, he had sounded downright furious. Was this really because of having coffee taken away from him? Arthur heard Alfred laugh from inside the room.  
"Just go the hell away and leave me alone. I don't even want to fucking see you right now." He looked at the door one last time before retreating back to his room. Later that night he made the decision that tomorrow he would have to call in reinforcements.

**A/N: Well that escalated quickly didn't it? This is why you don't take away Alfie's coffee. Thanks to all my reviewers and favoriters and follower and just regular viewers. You have no idea how awesome it is to log in in the morning and see that people actually like what I'm writing.**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Well guys this story is going to be coming to an end soon. This is day 4 of 5 so the next chapter will be the last. It's been fun writing this and getting reviews. Anyway onto the chapter.**

Day 4 A Call for Help

Arthur looked at the phone and sighed. He didn't really want to make the call but right now there was no other choice. He needed some advice on how to deal with Alfred. Sighing he dialed the number and waited until the ringing stopped.  
"Hello, Matthew. I need some advice."  
"What's wrong Arthur eh? You sound exhausted and stressed." Arthur smiled slightly at the concern in Matthew's voice.  
"I haven't been able to sleep much and yeah I'm stressed. I need some advice regarding Alfred." He quickly explained what had been going on with the coffee and withdrawal.  
"You took away Al's coffee!? That was stupid eh! Not even I mess with his coffee."  
"Thank you for the encouragement Matthew," replied Arthur dryly.  
"Well it is your fault. Just give him his coffee back and he should calm down eventually eh. And then he'll probably feel bad about yelling at you." Arthur nodded.  
"Alright if you think that would be best. He was due to get it back tomorrow anyway."  
"Arthur, out of curiosity have you been drinking your tea?"  
"No I haven't. Why do you ask?" He head a chuckle come from the other end of the phone.  
"Because you might be going through withdrawal too, just to a lesser extent. Well I've got to go now and so do you. Good luck eh." He sighed and gave a small smile.  
"Thank you Matthew. Goodbye." Arthur hung up the phone and went into the kitchen. He retrieved the coffee pot from on top of the cabinets and plugged it in. Now he just had to figure out how to make coffee.

**A/N: One chapter left until the end. Thanks for the reviews and favorites. I will most likely be writing another story similar to this in order to use the symptoms that I didn't use in this story. Let me know what you guys think of the idea and I'm open to any suggestions you may have.**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: This is the last chapter guys. Well I enjoyed uploading chapters for this and I have decided that I will be doing another story with a different pairing for the rest of the symptoms. Like I said I'm taking suggestions for that if you want to give them. Also I should say that if there are any of the 100 themes challenges from any of the 5 lists that you want me to do just send me a message with the pairing and the challenge and I'll write it for you.**

Day 5 Sorry...  
Arthur was nervous as he brought the coffee up the stairs. After spending a few hours trying to figure out how to work Alfred's damn coffee maker he had finally figured it out and made a decent cup of coffee. He stopped outside of Alfred's room and didn't hear anything from inside. Gently he placed the cup of coffee down, along with the note that he had written. Now he just had to wait for Alfred to find it and until then he was going to try to get some sleep.

_Alfred_  
He looked down at the ground right outside the door, where a cup of coffee was sitting there with a note.  
"What the hell?" Alfred picked up the cup and took a drink, not caring that it was cold as long as it had caffeine, and read the note.

Dear Alfred,

Sorry about everything. There's a pot of coffee downstairs for when you've finished this.

Love, Arthur.

As he read the note and continued to drink the coffee Alfred started to think about what had happened the past couple of days. He had yelled at Arthur for wanting to help him, he had refused to talk or even look at Arthur and he has been a complete bastard honestly.  
"Dammit I've gotta talk to him. Where did you go Arthur?" Quietly he walked down the hall towards Arthur's, no it was their room now that Alfre had gotten done with his temper tantrum. Opening the door carefully he peeked into the room. On the bed was Arthur, sleeping, with a cup of tea on the nightstand next to him.  
Alfred smiled and went into the room, sitting on the bed next to Arthur. The movement of the bed was enough to wake him up and he opened his eyes slowly.  
"Sorry that I've been a bit if a bastard," Arthur smiled at him and motioned for him to lay down. Alfred placed his nearly empty cup of coffee on his nightstand and laid down next to Arthur. He wrapped an arm around the Brit, "I didn't mean anything I said. I was just being irrational and irritable and I had a killer headache and I hurt all over and I'm really sorry and-" he was cut off as Arthur kissed him.  
"Just shut up and let me go back to sleep. You can apologize later." Alfred nodded.  
"Alright, sleep well. You look like you need it." Arthur smiled and closed his eyes, sleeping well for the first time in 4 days.

**A/N: And that's the end of the story. Sorry if the ending seemed rushed but I kinda based the lend off my own experience where I did give up caffeine and a few minutes after having some I started feeling better. As always reviews are appreciated and thanks for reading.**


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